Taking the Heat—Bay Area Ecosystems in the Age of Climate Change

It is a hot Indian summer afternoon on Jasper Ridge, site of a 1,400-acre biological preserve on the San Francisco Peninsula managed by Stanford University. Not even the slightest breeze stirs the foliage of the live oaks and madrones, and the pungent aroma of tarweed—a late summer forb of California savannas—is heavy in the air. Stuart Weiss, chief scientist for Menlo Park's Creekside Center for Earth Observation, walks slowly along a trail, taking ground temperature readings with his thermo-gun—a pistol-like device that precisely measures surface temperature.

"But in the coming era, we may want to focus as much on some of the largely forgotten native habitat types that should have a better chance of persisting in our future climate."—Robin Grossinger, SFEI